You get the feeling that there is probably going to be a wiki for this game some ridiculously long expositional description of where all of War's adornments come from and why he wears them. but no one will care and eventually people will decide that they just wanted him to look like a barbarian from WoW with Epic armour

Good article on the purpose of art in video games. However the all time champ of overwrought character design still has to be Michael Bay's Transformers. Madureira's art isn't all that bad, and his work on Darksiders is no reason for him to put down the pen. I think it is more the producer's/designer's fault for hiring him in the first place. That and not controlling his artistic ambition for the sake of a better game.

Something that bothered me a bit that wasn't mentioned was the fact that War wears the hood of his cloak over his head. I think a better fit for the personification of war would be a helmet. Its not like his face is so expressive that they wanted to show it off. They could have given him a helmet with angry eyebrows drawn on and it would've had the same effect.

I usually don't mind that not everything in a character design is meaningful, but you are right, War is a visual mess. I like the comparison between comics and games. However, this is just from a art perspective. I didn't mind it at all in the game.

I agree with this. It looks like someone got bored with one sheet of paper, so instead of designing multiple things of which to put all this stuff on, they just had to continually add piece after piece of armour to War's sketch.

Lol, I found this pretty amusing. It sounds like an attempt made by Yahtzee to try an justify his comments on design, but the fact that he tries to comment on the PRACTICALITY of a FANTASY character just makes him look stupid.

Fantasy requires a suspension of disbelief, does anyone ask why in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings world that in 3000 years people are still running around with medieval weaponry. The same goes with Warhammer 40k, and I suppose Darksiders.

For a man who got a bookdeal Yahtzee doesnt seem to be able to detract from a shallow aesthetic value, maybe he should look into it.

Honestly, I'm not that much of a fan of Final Fantasy's character designs either: hell, other RPGs set in the same kind of setting have all managed to have better wardrobes anyways (especially if you've played the Tales games, which are essentially set in a very similar vein to Final Fantasy).

As for War's design, I honestly would've imagined him in simpler armor. I mean, there's intimidating, and then there's plain silly. War's design in this game is simply silly, and I can think of at least one other way that I would've done stuff.

I don't understand all this hate towards Joe Madureira. He's an artist, and like all art, you either like it or hate it. Over-detail is as much a style as minimalism, though i do agree it doesn't always make for the best visual design approach in a game.

I wouldn't mind the look if he wasn't so goddamn fat. The problem with the over-detail approach here is that his girth makes him look like one of those ugly top-heavy WoW characters who collects a lot of junk on his body.

As ridiculous as War's design clearly is, I like it anyways for the same reasons I like the hyper-ornamented baroque monstrosities present in Warhammer 40,000 - my inner 14 year old thinks they look awesome.

Because they are awesome.

I'll take impracticality in a character's design any day if it's a choice between that or "plausible, but boring". There is after all a fine distinction between simply ridiculous and bloody stupid looking. You can be ridiculous and yet still awesome in a nonsensical over the top way; you can't really do much with bloody stupid besides not look at it anymore.

I like Cloud Strife's clothes from Final Fantasy 7 for the reason that they make sense. It's a SOLDIER uniform which indicates his past but it is also modified which shows he is no longer a member. His uniform is very recognizable due to it's purple colour and the make shift armour he wears shows how he doesn't have lots of money since he left soldier

Nice to see an article with comparison and development of ideas instead of bashing the character with no justification.

Andalso nice to have the reminder that Yahtzee really does know what he's talking about, which a lot of the forumites seem to forget. Aesthetic design is of fundamental importance to recognising characters (hate/love on them all you like, but Master Chief, Gordon Freeman, Max Payne all have instantly recognisable profiles)